So I have a relatively cheap electric kit that works but is a little less responsive than I would like and very loud. I have been looking into making an electric kit using piezo sensors and practice pads. Has anyone ever tried this before? I'm curious as to how responsive it can be and roughly how much it would cost.

... I have been looking into making an electric kit using piezo sensors and practice pads. Has anyone ever tried this before? I'm curious as to how responsive it can be and roughly how much it would cost.

I've made a few, but used cut down drum shells, roto-toms, and mesh heads, instead of practice pads. The roto-toms were the easiest for me and work really well.

Internally mounted piezos with foam or cones on top can be very responsive. It's a bit of work, but nothing unmanageable if you know how to solder and check connections. Gathering information and parts can take some time, but also be fun, if you're a DIY type.

I got a lot of info from the V-drums forums, and the DMdrummer forums (mainly Alesis).

So I have a relatively cheap electric kit that works but is a little less responsive than I would like and very loud. I have been looking into making an electric kit using piezo sensors and practice pads. Has anyone ever tried this before? I'm curious as to how responsive it can be and roughly how much it would cost.

i think it would be easier just to buy a used kit... there's a LOT of fiddling that goes into getting everything to play and respond properly (which is also on the vdrum forum)

any advantage you gained by having nice triggers would be completely offset by having a cheap module and the amount of time spent messing instead of playing

There was a DIY project in "Electronic Musician" magazine about 20 years ago involving getting these old skool piezo buzzers from Radio Shack and dismantling them and attaching it to the underside of a remo practice pad head and then soldering the leads to a 1/4" jack so you could plug it into a module. I think the results were favourable but you ended up having to build extra pick-ups as they were a bit fragile.

When I had a Roland Octapad Pad-80 years ago I opened it up and on the underneath of every pad, was the familiar piezo tranducer! But it was much more robust because the actual pads were a plastic on top of a hard layer of rubber, which was glued to a metal sheet, and then the piezo was attached to that with glue.

However, depending on your budget, I too think you'd be better off finding a used Roland V-Drum kit. I've seen older TD-10 kits selling for as little as $1100 on eBay and when I owned one, I bought it used for about that much from a friend. So deals can be had and although it could be a bit expensive to get a pad sensor fixed by Roland, I think it's cheaper in the long run to have something that you can play without having to worry about too much maintenance.

Did it for two reasons................needed a "quiet" kit, but I've always hated the E-Kit "look"

It worked great and there's plenty of detailed info on the vdrums forum and a ton of youtube vids..............I'd read and watch to see if you'd be willing to do it. It was alot of work, but once complete, they worked like a charm

Thanks Everyone! this has been very helpful. While getting a roland set would be completely ideal I don't have the funds to manage it right now. I think Im gonna give the "mesh head on half a drum" way to go. I've ordered some foam cones and am currently pricing cheap starter drum sets I can destroy.